Merry Thunder: OKC downs Orlando 97-89

It wasn’t the best gift under the tree, but it was practical as the Thunder took care of the Magic 97-89 to start out the season 1-0.

It could’ve been worse. It could’ve been the complete series of Gossip Girl or something. But this game was like that plain button-up from Old Navy you got from your grandma today. Nothing special, but useful.

There were flashes in the first half of brilliant transition offense, quality halfcourt possession basketball and stingy defense. The Thunder went on a couple of different runs to break away from Orlando, which was helped by a stretch in the first half where the Magic went just 5-30 from the field.

But for the most part, it felt like a meh opening night win, something you’d see Nov. 1 as a team still figures out a few things and settles into their normal rhythm.

The game came down to an essential, simple matchup: Perk got the better of Dwight Howard. Howard was just 4-12 for 11 points and only shot eight free throws. When Howard can’t roll inside, it completely limits the Magic’s inside-out game, which is what they’re basically designed to do.

“I thought Perk was really good staying between Dwight and the basket,” Scott Brooks said. “That’s what you want to do.”

Perk basically played Howard by always keep a body pressed against him, staying home and giving him a 12-foot jumper if he wanted it. Howard tried it three times, hitting one. After that, Howard never went near the paint without Perk’s barrel chest right up against him. That’s how Perk is going to play everyone and that’s why he can change the Thunder defensively almost all on his own.

At one point after Perkins was a little hot after getting tangled with Howard. Ref Bill Kennedy told Perk to chill and then even went over and told Brooks to calm Perkins down. Brooks didn’t look at all interested in that.

“We like him a little angry,” Brooks said. “We like him mad at his opponent.”

Perk did pick up his first technical of the season though by scuffling with Howard later. That’s No. 1 for Perk, and because of the shortened season, he’s got 12 more until he faces a suspension.

“He told me he’d slow it down when he got to nine,” Brooks said. “I’m trying to talk him into six.”

Nobody especially stood out for OKC, at least in terms of the box score. KD had 30, but missed five free throws. Harden was nice off the bench with 19, but was just 4-11 from the floor. Westbrook finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists but was just 6-17 and turned it over seven times. It was kind of a business-as-usual game, which sort of speaks to how good the Thunder can be.

Outside of Perk, it was OKC’s bench that won this game. It really kind of felt like OKC played like crap in the third, and yet the Thunder extended the lead to 18, outscoring Orlando 26-22 in the quarter. It mainly happened because the Thunder’s second unit was far superior to the Magic’s. Combined, the Thunder’s bench was a +47. The starting five had only one guy in the positives (KD with a +2).

Really, the second half didn’t have a lot of great basketball or anything, but the Thunder just sort of outclassed Orlando because of a surplus of talent. Where the Magic were trying to get everything they could out of J.J. Redick and Ryan Anderson, OKC had reserves and reinforcements to call on to pile up the points.

It pretty much came down to Howard not being able to carry the Magic. Which is precisely what the Thunder gameplan was.

NOTES:

KD showed off his postgame often, and the best thing I saw from it was how well he passed the ball. Orlando tried to double him, but he finished with six assists, which led the team. He was smooth, decisive and though he turned it over four times, he didn’t make a lot of straight dumb, forced passes. He made plays.

First open 3 Orlando gave Westbrook, he stroked with absolutely no hesitation. I fully support this development. He has to knock it down if they’re going to give it to him. Mainly because it makes him one of the most dynamic offensive players in the league when he does.

One major improvement from Perk because of his new body: He doesn’t foul. He can move his feet much better and doesn’t have to use his hands to keep someone in front of him. It’s a big reason Howard only took eight free throws. Perk was quick enough to stop Howard off the dribble.

Nick Collison, +18. Next question.

Serge Ibaka was a bit of a non-factor. It wasn’t foul trouble, but mainly matchup. Ryan Anderson is a perimeter 4, which makes it tough for Ibaka to really capitalize on his talents. Ibaka played only 23 minutes, didn’t score and had just six rebounds. It wasn’t his type of game, but I wouldn’t read anything into it.

I kinda dug Westbrook’s little capri underpants.

Westbrook worked a little out of the post as well. It appears his preferred move is spinning baseline to go glass. He tried it twice, knocking one down for an and-1.

Westbrook got way sloppy with the ball in the third. He turned it over three times in four possessions and lost control a bit. Not close to his best performance, but it’s nice to know OKC can handle a solid team when Westbrook’s off.

Quality night from Thabo. Made the open shots he was given, played solid defense and in his 20 minutes, did his job. That’s what OKC needs from him.

Nazr Mohammed entered in front of Cole Aldrich and Aldrich didn’t play. So no rotation switch there for now.

On that topic, Scott Brooks said, “Let’s face it: James is like our sixth starter.” That really makes no sense at all, but whatever.

KD missed an unusual five free throws. He said after the game, “No disrespect to a legend, but I felt like Shaq tonight.”

David Stern talked to the media before the game and said OKC could host an All-Star Game one day if there were 6,000 hotel rooms in the metro area. Which I think was a nice way to say no way. He said of OKC, the actual city: “This city was the little engine that could.” He also talked about OKC’s potential issue with keeping its core intact. He said that isn’t a small market problem, but a good problem that comes with being a contender.

Every time Hedo Turkoglu shot, I got excited. It felt like the first pass of a fast break.

The Thunder’s halftime show was a surprise soldier reunion for two different families. Everyone spent most of the third quarter trying to pretend they weren’t crying.

don't ever say "meh" again in one of these otherwise great articles. that's just giving up, and you are better than that. unless, of course, you just want to text me the whole article, start with an "omg", and end with a "ttyl". that'd be fine.

if we had a coach that would actually run plays and be flexible with rotations, harden coming off the bench would work. as it is, if this team is just going to "freestyle" on offense harden has to start or the potential of this team is being limited. westbrook and harden are a perfect complimentary combo and need to play as many minutes together as possible.

Enjoyed last night's game. Thought Perk looked good. For the Aldrich guys, it's game 1. His minutes will come. Nazr's not going to be able to play every night.

Favorite play: Perk posting up Hedo I think it was, Magic crash on Perk (really? On Perk?) and Perk drops this little dump-off pass to Collison for the bucket at the rim. Great little basketball play there.

I think Thabo's contributions have been way underplayed. He hit 2-2 from 3 point land. If he can be consistent like that (not 100% though, that's unrealistic). He'll be a great asset on the starting 5 and allow Harden to come off the bench and school the other team's second units.

It seemed to me that they bogged down in the second half when it became the KD and Russ show. Maybe I'm wrong, but there just weren't as many passes to the interior. But even with the warts, I thought it was a good season opener. I just have to fight my mind thinking that they're a third of the way through the season.

Excited to get a few games in, because tonight looked brilliant and weird all at once. Which is pretty normal at times. Want to see Russ in normal form.

I appreciated that game 1 KD got a little frustrated with his game then stepped up, kinda stubbornly, to make some plays. James, Sef, Maynor all had great offense and setup games tonight. I didn't feel like Russ had a whole mess of bad shots-just some odd turnovers that were sloppy, but his shots were good-just didn't fall.

Perk was awesome. I dunno if D12 is sandbagging or not, but Perk looked lively and on purpose.

Will be interesting against another good 4/5 tomorrow. And to see how Russ and Rubio get going.

I was just one of the millions, or whatever, that watched that game. But in the arena it felt fine. I never felt like low energy, just didn't have any worries ever in the whole game. Supreme satisfaction and admiration perhaps don't transfer to the screen? Like energy isn't needed when you are coasting?

@doofUSA This is why JH as a 6th man is a problem. The roatations and lineup combinations Brooks plays with. RW having to play with TS all the time puts Russ in the mindset that he has to force the issue. RW can play off the ball if he has a creator with him...and we have a great one sitting on the bench...

@jallenmorris There is no doubt to Hardens value on the second team but I cant wrap my head around the logic that if its given hes going to finish the game on the floor with the starters, why would the not start him. This seems like one of the most backward approaches to buidling chemistry. Im all for thinking out side of the box, but this approach empirically speaking, should have exhausted its half life already

@MartzMimic As long as three defensive players who cant be relied on to score, i.e., Sef starting by way of some inane old-school logic, passing the ball to the interior or Sef will not be at a premium

@Crownme@Darin We were very excited and energetic at first. It seems like the team kind of let the wind out of our sails with some lazy playing in the second half and from that point on people were ho-hum and leaving in large groups.

@kfmsooner@doofUSA You guys...the problem is that you're just guessing, whereas we don't have to guess how it works out to have Harden coming off the bench. It works very, very well. Well enough to make the Thunder the overwhelming choice to win the West and make it to the NBA championship this year. Sorry, but it's slightly crazy to pretend that we know something that can improve on that. lol

@Old Man Game@f5alcon guys like love and anderson are tough matchups for serge. it totally takes away from what he's best at (roaming the paint and being able to leave his man to send a potential shot to the 12th row) when he has to stay out on the perimeter. i expect a lot of minutes for collison again tonight because he seems to be a little better at guarding those pick-and-pop 4s (or maybe even a lot of small-ball with KD at the 4).

Daniel Plainview. I think it allows Harden to play the same amount of minutes, but have those minutes come at the most crucial part of the game, against the 2nd unit to help build/preserve a lead and at the end when we need offensive production on the floor.

Here is my theory:

If we focus the first 6 - 8 minutes on defense, then our offense doesn't have a burden on it if we come out of the gate rusty or just plain slow. If you score 2, then great defense keeps the other team from scoring, and you don't score on the next possession, you're still up 2. If you plan on your offense being better than their offense, lets say Harden hits a 3, and then they score a 2, you're still up twice as much with great defense than with great offense. Defense can make a MUCH bigger impact. I think Harden has the capability to be great on both sides of the court, but with Thabo hitting open jumpers and playing great defense, I think it makes great sense to have Thabo in the starting unit and Harden off the bench playing against players.

Harden's defense off the bench makes better sense against the other team's second unit too. Lets say Thabo is a 9 out of 10 defensively, playing against the other teams' starters who are 8 out of 10 offensively. Thabo gets a +1 there. If Thabo is a 5 of 10 offensively and the other team thinks he's a 3 of 10 from his past performances, but he is hitting, then thats a +2 for a total of +3.

Harden off the bench might have defense of 6 or 7 out of 10 playing against the other team's reserves who are not as good offensively so it could be a wash there. But Harden's offense is a 9 or 10 out of 10 against defenders who are not as good as the other team's starters, so Harden (with Maynor and Collison) help really push the Thunder's lead out to double digits. The other team panics and puts their starters in earlier. So even if the other teams starters come in and close the gap (which doesn't actually happen very often against our second unit because our 2nd unit is awesome), their starters get tired and are less effective at the end of the game when they really need to do defend against KD and Russ and Harden and Perk and Ibaka. That's just TOO much for tired players to handle on defense.

@kfmsooner@TaoMaas@doofUSA why is everyone bashing thabo today? 0 minutes? dude played a really good game last night. its a lot easier to see offensive production and therefore a lot easier to support a guy who is all offense (daequan) than a guy who is all defense (thabo "billy blanks" sefolosha).

also, everyone makes wayyyy too big of a deal about starting and not starting. in the nba its all about who is FINISHING the game. down 5 with 2 minutes left you can bet your butt james harden will be on the floor.

@TaoMaas@doofUSA Would the bench be great if KD or RW didn't start? Yes. JH deserves to start ahead of Thabo. It gives us better balance and a sensible HC would know how to mold JH, KD, RW into an unstoppable offensive force. Stagger rotations so that 2 of them are on the court 85% of the time and we are better than we are now.

.

I have long been on the side of Thabo getting 0 minutes. I just don't think he adds anything. I would rather see Harden with 35 minutes and Cook with 20 than Thabo having a large role.

@[censored] There was also a contingent on this board...uh, YOU...who slammed me last year for saying our second teams was a crucial component of this team. You constantly said that team depth and the second team didn't matter...only the starting team was important. lol

@jallenmorris The argument is not to start off well defensively, or offensively. It's about rotations. The lineups are not balanced. And I disagree that JH is on the floor for the most important parts of the game. You always want to close out the 1st half well and start off the 2nd half well. JH is usually on the bench for these moments, which are the most important in the game save the crunch time minutes in the 4th.